4 counter-common sense suggestions for marketing, branding and markets

Just as there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand readers, there are a thousand definitions of brand in the eyes of a thousand brand practitioners. When it comes to branding, if you don’t understand its essence, it’s hard to expect to achieve results in actual work.

Research has found that 90% of company marketing departments are inefficient and low-productive, which is largely related to practitioners’ misunderstanding of the essence of brands.

Kris, marketing instructor at Mantou Business School and founder of Thinker Brand Consulting, once shared four counterintuitive thoughts about brands, hoping to help everyone:

1. “Poor Dad” Thinking VS “Rich Dad” Thinking
2. The brand concept of "one leaf blinding the eye"
3. "Critical Moments" and "Critical Actions"
4. Beware of the "Five Poisons" of Brands

1. “Poor Dad” Thinking VS “Rich Dad” Thinking

During my many years of career as a brand consultant, I have had in-depth face-to-face exchanges with many entrepreneurs and CEOs.

During this process, I discovered that most companies have a "poor dad" mindset when it comes to brand building, and they often regard the money spent on brand building as "consumption."

When a "poor dad" goes out to consume, he will always involuntarily want to lower the price to see the ROI (return on investment) and improve the cost-effectiveness, and he can't wait to see the results.

If you spend money today and don’t get it back tomorrow, you will consider the action a failure. If I throw a coin and hear no echo, it feels really painful.

As for those companies that want to grow bigger and stronger and build their brands, they often have a "rich dad" mentality, with a sharp eye and quick, accurate and ruthless actions. They regard all the money and property they spend as an "investment".

If you invest money today, you can keep it safe even if you can’t get your money back in 10 months. They value "premium" more and regard brand as a "lever" to enhance value. Once you buy, you can hold on to it and wait patiently for time to pay off.

After all, the "poor dad" thinking is marketing, and the "rich dad" thinking is real branding.

Why do you say that?

Because in essence, marketing is a changing tactical design, while branding is a long-term strategic investment.

Marketers actually have a hard life. They have to keep changing and innovating. If Weibo is popular, learn from Weibo; if Douyin is popular, learn from Douyin; if Bilibili is popular, learn from Bilibili.

They study and process the media environment and achieve marketing results by purchasing and applying the best traffic channels. If we leave the current traffic channels, no marketing effect can be achieved, whether online or offline.

However, if you only understand channels but don’t understand people’s hearts, don’t understand how users’ minds are constructed, and cannot have insight into current people’s hearts and human nature, you will not be able to build a good brand.

When building a brand, we must grasp the law that "human nature is downward, but people's hearts are upward" and make long-term strategic plans based on this. Human nature is greedy, lazy, and cunning, but the human heart is full of beautiful hopes and passion, and is a projection of the ideal self.

Similar examples include the women's underwear brands Ubras and NEIWAI.

Both brands make wire-free bras. The former’s reputation plummeted because of Li Dan’s endorsement and the copywriting “Let women win in the workplace without doing anything”, which was criticized by netizens and became a hot topic. The latter was praised and became a hot topic because of Faye Wong’s handsome and intellectual endorsement photos.

What is the difference? How to look at it?

Just one year after Ubras raised funds, it started hiring a spokesperson - the popular star Ouyang Nana. Neiwai hired its first spokesperson in the fifth year—Du Juan, who is not very famous but fits Neiwai’s style very well.

If we look at the timeline and the thinking path of hiring spokespersons, one is a company that has just raised funds for a year and mainly relies on hiring traffic stars to acquire customers, while the other is a company that has been established for 5 years and has accumulated a lot of original users before it started to seriously engage in endorsements.

In my opinion, this implies the attitudes of both parties: Ubras relies on marketing, while internally and externally it focuses on the brand.

Ubras built its brand with a "poor dad" mentality, hoping to use traffic stars to attract as many young girls as possible, so it is not difficult to understand why it failed with Li Dan; and it invited model stars who matched the brand's tone both internally and externally, hoping that the spokesperson would show the beauty of women's freedom.

As Liu Xiaolu, founder of Neiwai, said: "What is the definition of a good brand? It is not the speed and scale in the eyes of investors, but the judgment of consumers on a truly good brand."

So what does a good brand look like in the minds of consumers?

I think it can be described in one word: blindness.

2. The brand concept of "one leaf blinding the eye"

Jack Trout, the "Father of Positioning", once said: "Brand is to occupy the most advantageous position in the minds of consumers, allowing competition to win without fighting."

This definition has long been known, but it is not accurate enough today. Because it only points out the snowball effect brought by the brand from an investment perspective, but for founders and CEOs, the practical guidance is not clear.

I think a good brand is like your lover, it will make you feel that no matter how bright the stars are or how colorful the flowers are, as long as you are by my side, I will not be able to see the forest for the trees.

It is this "blindness" that makes you "recognize, understand, and fall in love with" this brand, and you will never see other similar brands again.

In other words, a brand is not only a cognition that remains in the minds of users, but also a strong consensus that remains in the minds of a specific group of users. This consensus must contain some emotion or meaning that drives human nature in order to enhance the efficiency that the brand brings to business.

To put it simply, a good brand must meet the extreme preferences of a specific group of users. They choose you and are willing to pay a premium for you.

There are three core points here: specific users, you alone and payment premium.

It is easy to understand "You Are the One" and "paying a premium", but what exactly does "specific user" mean?

In our company, specific users have an exclusive name "Lighthouse User". As the name suggests, Lighthouse users are those people who naturally like you and take the initiative to approach you.

A brand can never be liked by everyone; it can only satisfy the unique preferences of a group of people.

Find the lighthouse users, provide them with attractive benefits, and build a reason for them to buy that "only you can do it", so that they will continue to buy and "pay a premium" for you.

Let’s take Zhong Xuegao as an example. (Putting aside the controversy regarding the founder’s interview some time ago) In the field of ice products, giants have long monopolized 75% of the Chinese ice cream market, and this situation continued until the emergence of new brands such as Zhong Xue Gao.

Data shows that just eight months after its establishment, Zhong Xue Gao won the top sales position in the ice cream category on Tmall on Double Eleven. In the 2020 Tmall 618 event, Zhong Xue Gao once again won the top spot in ice cream sales.

You may not be able to imagine that such a new brand actually sold 20,000 "Ecuadorian Pink Diamond" ice creams priced at 66 yuan in one day. Zhong Xuegao was therefore dubbed the "Hermes of the ice cream world" by consumers. Zhong Xuegao has actually found its lighthouse users.

OK, now that we know what a good brand is, the next step is to consider when and what to do. After all, only by doing the right thing at the right time can you achieve twice the result with half the effort.

3. “Critical Moments” and “Critical Actions”

Brand is not omnipotent, and not all companies need to build a brand right from the start. We can divide it into three stages based on time.

For a business that is growing from 0 to 1 in the early stages, the most important thing is to solve the problem of rapid customer acquisition. They need to quickly gain some resources in the market, create some results, and test organizational monetization in order to gain a firm foothold in the market.

At this stage, companies need to spend time and effort to first think clearly about the brand strategy plan, and then create popular products and generate buzz within a reasonable budget.

In the medium term, enterprises that grow from 1 to N need to implement expansion and achieve standardization. You need to standardize all your channels, internal processes, products, R&D, and even brand monetization, and there may also be a process of market acceleration. This is when brands need to focus their efforts.

In this step, you need to start laying out the brand strategy in many aspects.

But many people easily lose patience at this time. When they see that the brand actions are not effective, they become anxious, so they turn to marketing and do it in a hurry, which results in very high costs or even failure.

If you want to build a good brand, founders must remember that this is a long process.

From N to N+1, companies like Liby incubate new brands, which is a second venture. At this time, whether the parent brand can add icing on the cake for the new brand depends on luck.

For example, Liby, which focuses on skin care products, has incubated a new makeup brand "Half Moon Life". Do you feel positive, negative, or neutral about this new brand?

Most people must feel indifferent because these are two completely different categories. Therefore, in this new track, "Liby" cannot provide a natural umbrella of protection for "Banyue Fusheng".

Therefore, whether the brand can be refurbished a second time and achieve a second overtaking depends on the brand building ability of the founder. He is equivalent to rebuilding a brand from 0 to 1.

In general, building a brand requires a lot of time thinking in the early stages, and money spent on standardized marketing promotion in the later stages. These are actually investments, not consumption.

This is the “critical moment” for companies at different stages to build their brand.

The "key actions" are a systematic way of playing. To use the brand five forces model created by Thinktronic, it is about building brand vitality, memory, self-drive, influence and growth.

Under the guidance of the brand strategy, let the product have its own purchasing power, the channel have its own influence, and the communication have its own word-of-mouth power.

What exactly do the five brand forces refer to? What is the relationship between them?

1. Brand vitality

It is the core part of corporate brand building, including the brand strategy system, that is, positioning, world outlook, values ​​and personality, as well as the planning of brand development path.

If brand building is equivalent to fighting a battle, then this part is the core commander, providing strategic guidance to the following four forces.

2. Brand Memorability

It represents brand performance. This is manifested in visual, auditory, and even olfactory and taste dimensions, and includes elements such as brand naming, Logo, Slogan, VI, and UI.

The better the brand’s memory, the more recognizable it is in the market and the more popular it is. Brand memory can visualize the vitality of a brand so that it can be remembered by consumers.

Therefore, the design of brand memory must be consistent with the elements of brand vitality. Different vitality determines different manifestations of memory.

3. Brand self-drive

Its role is to examine whether the brand experience fits within the brand system. If the brand experience is good enough, the brand can easily become No.1 in the minds of consumers.

4. Brand influence

That is, brand communication, including designs for different branding and marketing goals. In addition to the subject of communication, influence is also related to who the communication is done with and who knows about it. Therefore, the choice of communication channels and target audiences is very important.

5. Brand growth potential

Brand growth potential is a management mindset, which means that we should manage the brand as a tangible asset and examine whether every action, rule, behavior, and output is in line with the strategic guidance of brand vitality.

If it is met, the brand will accumulate brand assets; if it is not met, it will produce negative development.

These five forces of brand can empower every aspect of brand development, and can also accompany brand growth, updates and iterations, allowing each company to have its own unique and most matching behavior mode, and convey a consistent, scientific and systematic brand voice to its users.

4. Beware of the “Five Poisons” of Brands

In the ever-changing business world, knowing what a brand is is not enough. If you want your brand to avoid detours, you also need to know what the brand is not.

Because no one can predict that they will always win, but we can learn to think in reverse and avoid risks. Among these, we should be especially vigilant against the “five poisons” of brands.

The "Five Poisons" actually refer to five cognitive misunderstandings. Once an enterprise falls into these misunderstandings, it is easy to fail. What are the “Five Poisons”?

1. Users will not buy into precise positioning just by saying it. Too many people are superstitious about positioning.

The success of positioning science is actually related to focus media (elevator media).

Jiang Nanchun, the founder of Focus Media, has provided business opportunities for many practitioners through his interpretation of positioning. He also has a theory called "saturation attack", and the two are related.

In other words, we first do 10 million in brand consulting for positioning, and then spend 100 million on advertising. This is a default operating method.

Its underlying logic is to rely on large-scale investment to strengthen user awareness, but you can't do this business without the money, and this method is not a panacea.

A typical example is the noble lady cream, "Sisters all love Vanmilin", which has reaped the benefits of "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves 1", but I ask everyone to think about it, do you think it has become a brand? Not really, right?

It has done the positioning, credibility, category recognition, advertising, and spokespersons, but in the end it failed to become a brand. Why?

First of all, in many people's minds, luxury cream has a natural definition, and the user must be a real luxury lady.

Who is the lady? The ladies are not micro-business people, they are middle-aged and older women who have social class and status.

Who are they? Executives of foreign companies, entrepreneurs, celebrities...

Will they use Fanmilin’s products?

Won't. If their salary is high enough, they will buy foreign brands such as Royal Selection and those used by the Dutch royal family, and will not consider domestic brands. Because these countries do have royal families, using the word "lady" is not considered a lie.

However, Fanmilin's story of "noble ladies" in modern China seems to be out of character, so the real noble ladies will not recognize it and it will not last long.

Just like when Chanel invited Coco Lee to be its spokesperson, she was complained by target customers for not being dignified enough, and Coco Lee became the shortest spokesperson in history.

Therefore, no matter whether it was someone else deliberately slandering it or they did not do a good job of public opinion monitoring, even though Fanmilin spent a lot of money on positioning consultation and advertising, it still failed.

Therefore, do not blindly believe in the so-called positioning theory. Good positioning can accurately target target users.

2. Positioning needs to keep pace with the times, otherwise it may become a mess

The American clothing brand GAP initially grew up relying on its product advantages. Its simple design was in line with the minimalist style that consumers were pursuing at the time. However, in recent years, GAP's designs have not been very innovative, which has been criticized.

Since 1992, the number of teenagers in the United States has increased year by year. The "Generation Y" population (people born between 1977 and 1994) has gradually grown into a consumer group that cannot be ignored. The consumption preferences of young people have also gradually changed, and affordable prices and trendy designs have begun to win the hearts of young people.

By 2000, GAP's difficulty in keeping up with trends began to emerge.

In order to attract young people back, GAP tried to change its brand positioning, and managers launched a radical "fashion transformation" campaign: in 2001, jeans, khakis, and T-shirts were no longer GAP's main products, and were replaced by sequined, diamond-studded, tights and other clothing.

However, the reason why GAP was able to conquer both young people and the old in the beginning was because it focused on the "basic style" approach.

In pursuit of novelty and fashion, GAP continued to cater to young people, and eventually lost its basic customers who were fond of American casual style, and the old company fell into complete crisis.

GAP then realized that the market in the past was suitable for "all ages", but if it wants to occupy the current market, it needs to continue to update its brand concept and achieve precise segmentation, otherwise there will be no brand recognition and influence.

But by the time it realized this, it was too late.

3. Internet celebrity products seek novelty and change, but forget to keep the core value unchanged in the long run

In 2012, Huang Taiji quickly became popular on Weibo with marketing events such as "luxury cars delivering pancakes" and "beautiful boss lady". Since then, it has even become a popular internet destination where white-collar workers and Internet people must check in.

However, consumers who have tried Huang Taiji Jianbing have complained that it is "too unpalatable, the service is poor, and the price is expensive."

I came here because of its reputation and had high expectations. However, the Huang Taiji pancake, which costs 15 yuan each, tastes even worse than the ordinary pancakes that cost 5 yuan on the roadside. The strong psychological gap makes consumers say that the price-performance ratio is too low.

But Huang Taiji did not realize this problem, nor did he develop affordable products that were more suitable for the general public's taste. Instead of "pacifying the country" first, the founder began to frantically "explore foreign powers" - developing other product categories.

As the business content changes, Huang Taiji’s brand core values ​​are also constantly changing.

From the beginning, we only sold pancakes, hoping to create a "Chinese-style fashionable fast food chain brand with pancakes as the core";

Soon the company transitioned to the second stage, not only producing single-category fast food, but also rice bowl fast food brands (Niu Dun) and hot pot brands (Da Huang Feng). The brand value concept changed to "building a mobile Internet fast food company with white-collar takeaway as its core";

In the third stage, we will "build China's largest mobile Internet single-item fast food production and distribution platform";

The final fourth stage is to “build a catering takeaway financial entrepreneurial ecological platform.”

Not only was the outside world dazzled, but the insiders were also in a state of chaos. Due to the crazy expansion of product categories and high prices, product quality was repeatedly criticized, and user consumption frequency hit new lows, Huang Taiji finally ran out of money.

Finally, in 2018, Huang Taiji, known as the pioneer of Internet catering, went bankrupt and fell from the altar.

From the day the founder chose to expand product categories instead of continuing to polish products to win user trust, he had forgotten his original brand concept of creating a "Chinese McDonald's" and therefore failed to realize his brand dream.

4. Even if a hit product is successful, it may not necessarily lead to the success of a brand

In fact, the birth of a hit online product depends half on hard work and half on luck. Most of the time, hit products cannot be predicted in advance.

Therefore, instead of working hard to create a hit product, it is better to create a branded product with a unique tone, and then continue to sell it. After forming stable sales, you can then create more multi-brand matrices with the same tone. This is safer.

"What should I drink for health and beauty? Tianwa Honey Grapefruit Tea."

In 2013, Tianwa International stood out from many beverages with its honey grapefruit tea, and even attracted many beverage leaders to follow suit that year.

Not only that, they also invited Fan Bingbing to be the spokesperson, and this honey grapefruit tea became all the rage, earning Tianwo a revenue of 4.726 billion yuan in one year, and successfully bringing it into the capital market. In 2015, sales reached 5 billion yuan.

However, in 2018, this figure dropped sharply to 1.572 billion, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 4.174 billion.

The failure of Tianwa International lies in its neglect to examine the value points and user pain points that the products bring to consumers, and its failure to continue research and development following the hit products and to hype up other products.

When there are better products than this honey grapefruit tea on the market, Tianwa, which failed to continue to innovate, will only be defeated.

Therefore, in many cases, companies still need to continue to build their brands and products, which requires long-term capabilities rather than short-term capabilities.

5. Users attracted by low prices have no loyalty

Most car brands use low prices to capture the minds of users. Let me tell you a case that saddens me, which is Audi.

In the past, Audi was a car of the same level as BMW and Mercedes-Benz in my mind, but it has now gradually faded out of the circle of high-end mass-market cars.

Think about it carefully, nowadays, when people born in the 1990s want to buy a luxury car, they will buy Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. How many people will use Audi?

So how did Audi get to this point?

In fact, Audi used to be the best imported car in China. It entered the country through government procurement, emphasizing the car's futuristic technology, and its configuration and cost-effectiveness are excellent.

However, in order to achieve more sales, Audi chose a low-price strategy and repeatedly lowered prices. Users often found that the price of the car they just picked up yesterday had been reduced again today.

Audi actually overlooked a fact: for most luxury car buyers, a car is actually a social tool, like watches, bags, and jewelry, used to show off to others, rather than just a means of transportation.

Therefore, buying a luxury car is, to some extent, a form of vanity social currency, which car owners use to show off their status to others.

Audi's blind price cuts not only make users psychologically unbalanced, but more importantly, the prices are so low that they can barely support the status of the car owners. It will inevitably be squeezed out of the luxury car market.

V. Conclusion

A true brand should be a symbol of beauty and dreams in the hearts of users. I have always believed that it is the brand, not anything else, that can defeat time.

In today's era, founders and CEOs should strike a dynamic balance between brand and marketing, so that their brands can avoid detours, attract lighthouse users through the brand's "words", and create spiritual collisions and value resonances with them.

Of course, the most important thing is that future CEOs should not only have passion, dreams and business acumen, but also have a scientific and systematic cognitive methodology to guide brand building and empower new brands with scientific methodology.

In the future, Chinese brands will continue to rise.

Author: Kris

Official account: Mantou Business School